The Click is Dead. Long Live the Decision.

Why Agentic AI Is the Most Exciting Shift I've Seen in Marketing — and What It Means for Your Business

I've been to a lot of marketing events over the years, where you sit with a bunch of strangers sipping bad coffee, waiting for the key insights. And some do have have thought provoking stuff. But when I attended the Marketing Association's Brainy Breakfast in Auckland last week, I came away genuinely buzzing. The kind of buzzing where you're still turning ideas over in your head at 11pm, scribbling notes on your phone (actually I don’t do that - I’m too sleep-deprived to be bothered).

The topic was where AI is headed in 2026 — and more specifically, two things I think every New Zealand business owner needs to understand right now: zero-click commerce and agentic marketing automation. Bear with me, because even if those terms sound like something from a tech conference in Silicon Valley, the implications are very much here, very much real, and — here's the part that genuinely excites me — very much within reach for small and medium businesses like yours and mine.

First, Let's Talk About How People Used to Find You Online

For the past 20 years, the internet worked like this: someone typed a question into Google, Google showed them a list of results, they clicked on a link, landed on a website, and — if your website was good enough — they bought something or got in touch. The whole game was about getting people to click through to your site.

That model is changing. Fast.

AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google's AI overviews, and a raft of others are now answering questions directly. Instead of giving you ten blue links, they give you the answer. No click required. This is what's being called "zero-click" — the search happens, the answer appears, and your website never even enters the picture.

Now, I know what you might be thinking: that sounds terrible for business. And if you're thinking purely in terms of website traffic, you'd be right to be concerned. But here's the reframe that genuinely excited me at this event: the question is no longer "how do I get someone to click on my website?" The question is now "how do I become the brand that AI recommends?"

The Near Future Is Already Knocking

Richard Conway from The Optimisers painted a picture of where this is all heading, and it really resonated with me. Imagine someone says to their AI assistant: "Find me some running shoes — dark blue or black, under $200, delivered by Friday, free delivery preferred." The AI doesn't show them a list of websites. It finds the best match, checks stock, confirms delivery, and says: "Done. Want to approve?"

That's not science fiction. That's the direction Google's Universal Commerce Protocol is heading — a system that allows AI to browse, compare, and purchase on your behalf, all within the AI interface itself. The click, as we knew it, is becoming optional.

So what does this mean for your website? Your social media? Your online presence?

It means the game has changed, and the businesses that thrive will be the ones that understand the new rules.

Winning in a World Where Your Website Isn't the Stage

Here's what really resonated with me: the winners in this new world aren't necessarily the businesses with the flashiest websites or the biggest ad budgets. The winners are brands that AI can trust and verify.

Think about what an AI is actually doing when it recommends a product or service. It's looking for signals of credibility — genuine customer reviews, clear and consistent business information, transparent policies around delivery and returns, third-party citations from reputable sources. It's looking for businesses that people ask for by name.

In other words, everything your customers already value — authenticity, reliability, transparency — is now also what the machines are looking for. That's actually quite heartening when you think about it.

The businesses that will struggle are the ones relying on clever on-site persuasion to convert visitors, or those with vague claims and messy information. If an AI can't quickly determine what you do, what you charge, and why you're trustworthy, you simply won't get recommended.

The practical upshot? Now is the time to get serious about your customer reviews and make them easy to find. Now is the time to make sure your business policies — delivery, returns, guarantees — are crystal clear and genuinely consumer-friendly. And now is the time to think about brand building in a way that goes beyond likes and follows.

Now for the Part That Really Got Me Excited: Agentic AI

The second half of the event was presented by Adnan Khan from Stitch, and this is where I nearly fell off my chair — in the best possible way.

You've probably heard a lot about AI writing blog posts or generating images. That's generative AI, and while it's useful, it's a bit like having a very capable intern who can only do one thing at a time and needs to be told every step. Agentic AI is something altogether different. It's AI that can pursue a goal autonomously, work through multiple steps, learn from feedback, and keep improving — more like a proactive digital team member than a tool you prompt.

And here's the number that stopped me in my tracks: the agentic AI market is projected to grow from $7 billion today to over $93 billion by the early 2030s. Gartner predicts that 90% of B2B buying will be AI-agent intermediated by 2028. This is not a slow-burn trend. This is a step change.

What does it look like in practice? Adnan shared some real workflows his team is running right now — not theoretical, actual working systems. Things like a landing page analyser that scrapes any website and delivers ten conversion improvement recommendations instantly, or a competitor pricing monitor that automatically checks rival websites on a schedule and only alerts you when something actually changes. Or an email follow-up system that identifies people who opened your email but didn't click, and automatically triggers a targeted follow-up — all without anyone having to manually review a spreadsheet.

Why This Matters So Much for NZ Small Business

Here's where I get genuinely emotional about this, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

For years, the sophisticated marketing technology that big companies use — the kind that does real-time personalisation, dynamic lead scoring, automated campaign management — has been out of reach for most small businesses because of the cost. Traditional platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce Marketing Cloud run to thousands of dollars a month per seat.

Agentic systems built on tools like n8n and Clay? We're talking $100 – $300 a month for composable, powerful automation. Campaigns that used to take weeks to set up can launch 75% faster. Lead scoring that used to rely on simplistic point systems — "opened email = 5 points, visited website = 2 points" — can now draw on thousands of variables, adapting in real time based on actual buyer behaviour and intent.

This is genuinely the great equaliser. The small Northland accounting firm, the Bay of Plenty trades business, the Wellington boutique agency — they can now access the same calibre of marketing intelligence as the corporate down the road. That's the part that keeps me up at night in the best possible way.

What Should You Actually Do?

The 6-month roadmap presented at the event was refreshingly practical. The first couple of months are about getting your foundations right — auditing your data, making sure your systems can talk to each other, and identifying one or two areas where automation could make a real difference without too much risk. Months three and four are about running a pilot — trying out an AI agent for something like lead scoring or email follow-ups, and tracking the results. Then months five and six are about scaling what's working.

But before any of that, I'd suggest starting with the basics that will help you win in the zero-click world: make sure your Google Business Profile is up to date and accurate, actively collect and respond to customer reviews, ensure your website clearly explains what you do and what customers can expect, and think carefully about whether your brand is one people would ask for by name.

The Bottom Line

Only 8% of New Zealand organisations are fully AI-transformed right now. 68% of SMEs have no AI plans at all. That's both a wake-up call and an enormous opportunity. The businesses that start building their AI capability now — even modestly, even imperfectly — will have a compounding advantage that late adopters simply won't be able to close.

The click may be dying. But the decision is very much alive. And for those of us who position ourselves to be the trusted, credible, machine-readable choice in our market — the future looks very bright indeed.

I'd love to know what you're doing with AI in your business right now. Feel free to reach out or drop a comment below.

This article was inspired by the Marketing Association Brainy Breakfast, February 2026, featuring Richard Conway from The Optimisers and Adnan Khan from Stitch.